Religious order with Duxbury ties feels effect of Haiti earthquake

Thursday

Jan 21, 2010 at 12:01 AMJan 21, 2010 at 9:17 PM

The Sisters of St. Margaret's, an order of Episcopal nuns based in Boston, have a retreat in Duxbury. It is a wooded spot, consisting of several wooden buildings over looking Eagle's Nest Bay. They also have a convent in Port-Au-Prince Haiti. It is completely destroyed.

Matthew Nadler

The Sisters of St. Margaret's, an order of Episcopal nuns based in Boston, have a retreat in Duxbury. It is a wooded spot, consisting of several wooden buildings over looking Eagle's Nest Bay.

They also have a convent in Port-Au-Prince Haiti.

It is completely destroyed.

Thankfully, while the convent is destroyed, along with Holy Trinity Cathedral and a school, the three nuns who lived there are safe.

The order runs a home for indigent elderly women in Haiti that too has been destroyed.

The complex of buildings is located only a block from the government palace,

According to Sister Grace of St. Margaret's, the Sisters, and their charges, have been sleeping outside in the soccer field at the college of St. Pierre.

It was two days before news from Haiti reached St. Margaret, via e-mail, that everyone was safe.

The order currently has three nuns in Haiti, Sister Marjorie Raphael, Sister Marie Margaret and Sister Marie Therese.

Sadly, while the three nuns in Haiti survived the quake, one of the order's Haitian members, Sister Kethia, lost three cousins in the disaster, according to Sister Grace.

Since the quake, some of the residents have found shelter with of Dr. David McNeely, an Episcopal priest and physician whose home in Port-au-Prince is in a part of the city that seems to have gone undamaged, according to Sister Adele Marie, a member of the order who was visiting Duxbury.

Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, has seen its share of natural disasters even before the earthquake. In 2008, four hurricanes hit the island, which according to Sister Caroline, resulted in many more people fleeing the countryside and heading into Port-au-Prince.

It's too soon to think about rebuilding, said Sister Adele Marie, but they're not leaving a country that needed their help long before the earth shook.

At this point, the Sisters are looking to raise funds, Dr. McNeely, said Sister Adele, will be returning to Haiti soon with cash raised in order to help re-establish the mission.

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